


Beholding heaven and feeling hell

by thegirl20



Category: Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-02
Updated: 2013-02-02
Packaged: 2017-11-27 21:43:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/666810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegirl20/pseuds/thegirl20
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set during the episode 'Callisto'.  What happened between Gabrielle's capture and subsequent rescue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beholding heaven and feeling hell

The girl is spirited. She struggles and pulls against her bonds even though she must know it is futile. There is no escape.   
  
Callisto watches from the doorway to the makeshift cell for a long moment before announcing her presence with a pitying laugh.  
  
“Don’t bother trying to get away.” Gabrielle looks up at the unexpected voice, but quickly returns her attention to the rope at her wrists. Callisto smiles, slinking further into the room to stand in front of her captive. “You saw how easily I captured you before. I can do it again. Only this time I might not be so friendly about it.”  
  
She doesn’t look up, but her fingers falter at the knots and Callisto knows her words have been effective. She crouches down, elbows on her knees, tilting her head so that she can see the girl’s face.  
  
“Come to think of it...how  _did_  I capture you with quite such breathtaking ease?” Callisto poses the question like she really means it, brow scrunched up in exaggerated contemplation. “Where was your  _champion_? Hmmm?” Here she runs a finger down the girl’s bare arm and grins when she tries to squirm away. “Where was your  _hero_  when you needed her?”  
  
“She’ll come for me.” The certainty in her voice is almost touching. Almost.   
  
“Perhaps,” Callisto allows. “Or perhaps she’s glad of the opportunity to be rid of your constant chatter. Perhaps she’ll just move on to the next short, irritating blonde that she encounters.”  
  
Her head is shaking as Callisto speaks, but there’s something in her eyes that lets Callisto know that she’s less than sure and she presses on.  
  
“You’re nothing to her, you know. Oh, you probably think you are. Maybe she’s even told you that you’re her friend or that she  _cares_  about you.” Callisto grabs Gabrielle’s chin and forces her to look forward. “You forget, my dear, that I’ve seen your Xena at her most vicious. Her most terrible. I’ve seen the  _real_  Xena.”  
  
“No, you haven’t. That’s not who she is. Not anymore.”  
  
Callisto lets go of the younger woman’s face and stands.  
  
“No? So, one day she just decided  _not_  to be a bloodthirsty warlord anymore...is that how it works?”  
  
“...Yes.” The hesitation encourages Callisto.  
  
“And her crimes? Her killing sprees? Wanton murders? Those are to be forgiven and forgotten, I suppose.” The tone is conversational. As if they are discussing a play or a poem.  
  
“Yes...no. She’s....she’s trying to atone.”  
  
“Atone.” The word has no inflection on her tongue. “How does one atone for thousands of deaths these days?”  
  
“Callisto, she’s...she’s truly remorseful. What happened to your family was aw-“  
  
She kicks her, hard, in the stomach.  
  
“Don’t mention my family again. Ever. My family died at the hands of the woman you hold up as a hero.”  
  
The girl coughs, seemingly losing her breath for a moment, but doesn’t cry out. Callisto grudgingly admires her for that. Once she has recovered, she returns her eyes to Callisto, accusing.  
  
“And how many families have you killed? How many people have you forced to go through the same pain you went through? Does it help? Does it make you hurt less?”  
  
Hurt. A distant memory of what it felt like to hurt surfaces deep inside her mind and she pushes it away. She doesn’t feel pain any longer. She doesn’t feel anything much to speak of.  
  
“It pleases me to cause Xena pain. It pleases me to see her suffer. She made me the way I am so anyone I hurt,  _she_  has caused it.”  
  
Gabrielle shakes her head, still twisting her wrists, trying to get away. Silly, persistent child.   
  
“You can’t absolve yourself of blame like that. Xena is well aware of her crimes, she doesn’t deny them.”  
  
Callisto rolls her eyes and turns away, looking through spaces in the ramshackle wooden structure to where her army is finishing off the arena where she will face Xena. Where this will end.  
  
“One day, you’ll see her for what she is. When she tires of this hero persona. She’ll return to her true self and you’ll see the monster that lives inside the  _warrior princess_.”  
  
She turns around once more, towering over the seated girl, enjoying the doubt in her eyes.  
  
“She’ll forget that she’s supposed to be your ‘friend’ and she’ll either kill you or use you to satisfy her baser urges.” She drops to her knees and notes that the girl’s breathing has increased, her eyes have darkened. She reins in the smirk that threatens to appear. “She’ll throw you down and push those creamy little thighs apart and she’ll take you any way she wants to because she knows you’re weaker than she is. That you couldn’t fight her off. That she  _can_.”  
  
She places her hands on Gabrielle’s knees and forces her legs apart. She squirms away and tries to kick but Callisto’s grip is too firm. One hand shoots out like lightning to cup her through her undergarments. Callisto’s grin grows when her fingers encounter unmistakeable arousal.  
  
“And the thing that scares you most, Gabrielle, is that you’ll like it.”  
  
“No...I...stop...don’t touch me.”  
  
The warrior queen angles her head, ever so slowly. “I could take you right here. Right now. I could show you what she’d do to you.”  
  
She increases the pressure of her hand, rubbing a little harder and watching as the girl strains to keep her hips still.  
  
“You probably don’t even realise it do you? Or you don’t want to. Tell me, Gabrielle, do you tingle between your legs when she looks at you? When you watch her late at night, as she sleeps beside you, do you get wet? Do you touch yourself like this?”  
  
“Please.” She’s begging now, tears streaming from her eyes. “Please....”  
  
“You know, it’s not really clear if you’re asking me to stop, or asking me to continue.”  
  
“Stop! Now! Stop!”  
  
Callisto has done many things in her lifetime, but raping little girls is not one of them and she withdraws her hand, wiping it along the Gabrielle’s thigh as she does so.  
  
“Whatever you picture while you lie there and listen to her breathing, the reality would disappoint you. I stopped.” She leans in so that her nose is pressed against Gabrielle’s cheek. “She wouldn’t.”  
  
“She wouldn’t...ever, touch me like that if I didn’t want her to.”  
  
“Well, it’s lovely that you’re willing to take that chance,” Callisto tells her, with a condescending nod to punctuate the statement.  
  
“You’re the only one who’s taking a chance here.” She’s collected herself as much as she can with bound hands and feet. “There’s no chance that Xena will leave me here. But challenging her to a one on one fight...you’re taking your life in your hands.”  
  
“Yes, I am. But really, it’s of no consequence. If I kill her...well, all to the good. If she kills  _me_ , however, then I was right about her and I will spend eternity knowing that you will constantly be doubting her. Worrying that your ‘friend’ will decide that vengeance is more satisfying than atonement.”  
  
“I will never doubt her.”  
  
Callisto stands and looks down at her, so young, so naïve.   
  
“Yes, you will. Oh, I’m not saying it will be today, or in a month or a year…but one day you will doubt the supposed _goodness_  of your Xena. And it might just keep you alive.”  
  
She turns to leave, the momentary distraction has passed and she is bored of the girl now. But as she reaches the door, she is compelled to turn back.  
  
“Someone will die today, Gabrielle. You never know; perhaps we’ll both get what we hope for.”  
  
The words hang between them, thick with ambiguity. Callisto smiles.


End file.
